To give you the best possible experience, this website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. For information on cookies and how you can disable them visit our Privacy Policy.

Support community for JTV.

NOTE: Line 6 Monkey 1.62 is required in order to install this firmware update.

The v1.9 firmware update for James Tyler(r) Variax(r) features enhanced palm muting for a more natural response to muted guitar parts and aggressive playing styles. It also provides faster updates with additional error checking.

For JTV-89 Customers Only: In addition to the 28 electric, acoustic and eclectic instruments, you also get five high-gain models exclusive to JTV-89 loaded into custom bank 1. Each model is based on a different pickup position, and delivers high-gain guitar tone while allowing you to access drop tunings, custom Dream Rig configurations and more.

The five high-gain models come with a couple caveats: 1. For the time being, they are not editable in Workbench, nor will you be able to mix and match the body or pickup models. 2. For the time being, the High Gain Model is hard-wired into the Custom 1 bank. You will not be able to overwrite the Custom 1 bank from the guitar or from Workbench.

NOTE: (when updating from 1.71): If you've loaded your guitar with custom models and would like to retain your current custom banks and/or custom models, please sync with Variax Workbench and save your custom model set. You will be able to re-load your models from Workbench after you've completed the update.

Yeah, I think that hardcoding them was the only way to release them before workbench is updated, even if they released them for the other models as a "pack" along with the former acoustic models... I think a few people would throw a few bucks at these.

I went through every guitar model and appears to be no change. However, I must stress that I use primarily the Strat and Les Paul models and there appears to be no change but I could be wrong, some may have better ears than I. The fact that I am playing direct into my DT50 head which now thinks it is a Soldano could be further clouding my judgement. Nothing has changed on the custom banks even though I selected the option to not to keep any models. I run with the stock models and always have done.

I do believe that is the case, which is more or less what this upgrade is all about. Less flabby if you know what I mean. There is little difference palm muting this guitar to any of my others but I didn't really have a big problem with it before as I don't really play the type of material where it becomes noticable as a concern as such. I'm sure many other users will notice more of a difference.

I too have updated monkey and it will not recognize update,restarted windows 2 times,still no luck also went to link on THE REAL ZAP post and it did download I click to open and still monkey wont see 1.9 .....any help here guys would be greatly appreciated!!

+1 -- I've seen the same volume issue on both my 59 and now on my new 69S, but more noticeable as the the single coils have less output than the HB's of my 59. When It came, the 69S had firmware 1.71, and the strat models vs the 69S mags were on about the same level. With firmware 1.82, the volume difference was either the models got a lot louder or the mag A/D level was reduced significantly for the VDI cable -- I have not checked the analog out levels -- I should....

I compare volume levels of my 59's mags to the LP or Special for level comparisons, and on the 69S, I compare the single coil mags to the strat models to keep it on an "apples to apples" basis...

I plan to do the updates to both my 59 & 69S this weekend.

Hey Zap -- how does the update know what model you have (89 versus the 59 or 69)? The JTV has no ESN, and neither my Monkey software (just prior to this most recent version), nor my HD500 seems to be aware of the model of my 59 or 69 when connected with the VDI... So how does the update software know whether to install the new high gain models in the custom 1 slot or not?

Hey Zap -- how does the update know what model you have (89 versus the 59 or 69)? The JTV has no ESN, and neither my Monkey software (just prior to this most recent version), nor my HD500 seems to be aware of the model of my 59 or 69 when connected with the VDI... So how does the update software know whether to install the new high gain models in the custom 1 slot or not?

Curious...

Dave

I don't know for sure, but i suspect that there is an internal code that gets verified...

but i had the same "crossflash" idea as you... to try the new models, and the different alt-tunings...

I filled out their customer feedback form with essentially what I wrote above, adding the fact that WRHBs would support the creation of Tele Customs, Tele Deluxes, '72 Thinlines, and even the Starcaster (which could probably even just use the ES-335 body model). So who knows, maybe it'll happen.

Thank you!! That did it, it was the first time I had a firmware that monkey didn't just walk me through,that and I'm a bit of a noob, so wasnt aware you could browse for file downloads but all good now ...thanks again!!

I installed v1.9 of the JTV firmware last night. My initial reaction is that palm muting is a little better, especially noticeable on high-gain left or right hand damping techniques (electric models), not so noticeably different on acoustics. IMO, for both guitar families, the damping is acceptable, but far from perfect - yet.

However, and this might just be my imagination, but I think the acoustic models sound a little better than before, more body sound coming through? I replaced everything in the update, of course, so some of my forgotten tweaking was replaced, which might account for the better acoustics. I wanted to establish a 6th fret virtual capo, using the on-guitar method, which I use for one song, and struggled like hell for 30-40 minutes to get it right. Never had that much trouble previously.

Just installed the update on my JTV-89. LOVE the new high-gain models, and palm-muting is indeed improved across the board. I'm fairly certain the new Custom-1 bank contains models of the JTV-89's magnetic pickups in all positions (clues came from the way they're named in Workbench, plus they sound nearly identical if you switch modeling on and off while playing). Palm-muting is not perfect, but a huge improvement and definitely usable. I can finally utilize all those low tunings for heavy stuff! Until now I had been forced to use the mags for pretty much anything that required heavy muting, but it's good enough now that I can use the modeling all the time.

I would like to share my experiences about the 1.9 firmware. I've got a JTV-69, so I was a bit sad when I saw that the 5 new model is only for the JTV-89. I hope Line6 will make this available for us too.

I made some records before and after the update. I was very curious about the developed palm muting, as I regurlarly use it.

Unfortunatelly I didn't notice differences, maybe very little. The magnetic pickups are still better in this situation. The virtual ones don't give the short, dynamic pluck. I think this is partly caused by the tone of the virtual ones. In my JTV-69 my magnetic pickups sounds much brighter and there is not as much low-mid tones as the virtual ones (anyone noticed that?). When I palm mute the strings it still give some boom, instead of the mentioned short, dynamic transient (pluck).

Hang on a sec , WHY are the high gain models only available for the 89 ? , why are 59 and 69 players not been offered the same options ? why are we being discriminated against ?

We have all forked out our hard earned pennies on the product and just because we prefer a more "retro" design doesn't mean that we don't want an option of a higher gain model of guitar or the option to put a high gain pickup in the preset models within workbench .(a suggestion i put to line 6 months ago)

Its not exactly unheard of for LP or Strat players to stick EMGs or Dimarzio / SD / or whatever in their guitars to get the sound they want while they retain the looks of a classic instrument , otherwise Slash, Zack , Malmsteen etc would all be hanging Ibanez or Charvels round their necks

The JTV is supposed to be the one stop guitar , with only the body/neck design seperating the benefits available to the player .Get it sorted Line6

If I understand this correctly, the new 5 models in the JTV-89 are based on it's own mag pickups? If so, I guess that the 59 and 69 owners will get something similar in the future? If so, I don't mind waiting for v2.0.

I would like to share my experiences about the 1.9 firmware. ...my magnetic pickups sounds much brighter and there is not as much low-mid tones as the virtual ones (anyone noticed that?). When I palm mute the strings it still give some boom, instead of the mentioned short, dynamic transient (pluck).

Good post! I've noticed the same exact thing. The JTV is definitely an improvement over previous Variaxes but, I've often wondered if the low-mids were a bit too much. Maybe I should mess with workbench to correct this?

In additiona total of 28types ofelectric, acoustic, instrumentssupremotick, you have fivededicatedmodelalsoHaigenJTV-89.Each modelisbased on thedifferenceof the pick-upposition, you canaccess theconfigurationand customDream Rigtuninganddropusing thehigh-gainguitar tone.